The present invention relates to a sighting system primarily for handguns and more particularly to a sighting system in which daytime and transition light performance is improved for sights previously designed primarily for night use.
Related prior art is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,203 issued Apr. 26, 1977 to O. Thuler for a night sighting illumination system for articles including weapon sights. The night sight comprises a self-luminous point or dot of light emanating from an insert assembly including a capsule having a radio-active luminescent source such as tritium. The present invention improves on the structure of the '203 Thuler patent and upon its application for a night sighting system for weapons.
Prior to the application of self-luminous sources for handgun night sights, many weapons already had a capability for daytime and transition light sighting by using three white dots on front and rear sight blades for sight alignment. Here one white dot is used on the front sight blade and two white dots are located in horizontal displacement on opposite sides of a center notch on the rear sight blade such that the three dots are seen by the user in a desired orientation for alignment with the target when the weapon is in proper aim. The white dots are usually obtained by the application of white paint in a shallow recess in the steel portion of the front and rear sight blades. Some weapons have used solid white plastic elements glued into deeper drilled holes.
Initially the application of self-luminous night sights, such as the '203 Thuler patent, to weapons simply added the night sight to the existing front and rear sight blades. The daytime function thus continued to be the usual alignment of the top of the front blade with the top edge of the notch of the rear blade. Some front blades contained a red plastic insert or painted portion with the luminous element or dot placed inside the plastic insert or painted portion.
Other prior art sights have used painted rings or ring shaped decal like members applied around each night sight element. These rings are generally thin lines of large diameter and often irregular shape which because of their size and irregular shape are perceived as rings rather than dots; such perception can be distracting rather than helpful to the user. Further, the applied rings could wear off under heavy duty use and/or rugged environments.
In the present invention a structure is provided having improved daytime and transition light sighting which is obtained in part by inlaid white circles around the luminous elements which circles are accurately defined in contour and size to more nearly provide the appearance of white dots. In this regard the advantages of the synthetic sapphire lens structure of the '203 Thuler patent are retained; these include optical clarity, extreme hardness and durability, and a very sharply defined round luminous dot upon which the eye can focus while aiming during night and/or transition light sighting.
In addition, however, the structure of one form of the present invention provides improved shock load protection of the luminescent glass capsule containing the radioactive tritium, i.e. a pressurized hydrogen gas isotope. These shock loads are especially very high on automatic pistols due to both weapon firing recoil and the metallic slide stops which are part of the self-loading actuation system. Other shock loads could arise such as accidental impact of the weapon against a hard surface.
The structure of the present invention also improves the protection of the glass capsule containing the tritium gas during the installation of the steel blades into the weapon.
Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide a sighting structure for a weapon having improved daytime and transition light sighting.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sighting structure for a weapon utilizing a luminescent glass capsule including a radioactive tritium source and having a mounting with improved shock load protection.
It is a general object to provide an improved sighting structure for a weapon.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: